Politics & Government

How to Win an Assembly Seat Without Getting Elected

The party convention is a process for filling vacated Assembly seats -- without the uncertainty of an election.

The death earlier this month of of the 16th District sets in motion what has become a common way to for politicians to gain a seat in the Statehouse without standing for election: The party convention.

It's a process in which the county committee members of the party that had controlled the seat gather at a convention and pick a successor. That person will hold the seat until the term is up.

Once in Trenton and backed by the power of incumbency, the odds are any legislator, whether elected by voters or chosen by the party elite, will stay there for as long as he or she wants. That could be decades.

Find out what's happening in East Brunswickwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"Incumbency is definitely an advantage," said Ben Dworkin, director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University. "That power of being an official in office and having all the trappings of the office, the ability to do all those 'nonpolitical events,' certainly have an added impact on voters, to get them to know who you are and like you."

Only two lawmakers have lost elections over the past two cycles -- Assemblyman Domenick DiCicco (R-Gloucester), due in part to being redistricted, and Sen. Marcia Karrow (R-Hunterdon).

Find out what's happening in East Brunswickwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Karrow's loss was the exception to the rule: In January 2009, she bested fellow Republican Assembly member Michael Doherty to replace Leonard Lance in the Senate, after Lance was elected to Congress. Five months later, Doherty beat Karrow in the primary for the Senate seat she held. He went on to win that November.

It used to be that legislative vacancies occurring due to death or a resignation while a state Senator or Assemblyman was in office were filled through the process of a special election, held shortly after the vacancy.

Such elections were rare until the 1980s, where there were a flurry of special ballots -- there were a dozen between 1985 and 1987 alone. Fewer than 10 percent of those registered voted, the lowest turnout percentage of any New Jersey balloting. The cost of these elections, including the printing of ballots, the polling locations and staff, ran as high as $100,000.

"Putting together an election is a significant undertaking and it's not a cheap one," Dworkin said.

In 1987, the 23rd District in western New Jersey which included parts of five counties, had four elections in a span of eight months. On March 24, then-Assemblyman Dick Zimmer, a Republican, won the Senate seat held by Walter Foran until his death three months earlier. About 6,900 votes were cast. In June, now incumbent Zimmer won his party's nomination for the Senate seat and six Republicans battled it out for the Assembly nods. One of those six, William Schluter, went on to run in and win the July 28 special election to fill Zimmer's Assembly slot. Only 3,400 people voted. Finally, Zimmer, Schluter and incumbent Assemblyman Dick Kamin went on to win the general election in November.

Lawmakers proposed a constitutional amendment replacing the system of special elections with party conventions, taking the power to choose their state representatives away from the electorate and putting it in the hands of a few hundred of the faithful of the party already in power.

Continue reading this story in NJ Spotlight.

NJ Spotlight is an issue-driven news website that provides critical insight to New Jersey’s communities and businesses. It is non-partisan, independent, policy-centered and community-minded.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here